Category Archives: Book Reviews

Everyone who thinks about what it takes to create great products needs to read The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist. Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., author of The Mythical Man-Month, has released this inspiring collection of essays about the nature of design. By Brooks’ definition, design includes the notion of intent and definition of goals, requirements, and implementation choices. Everyone responsible for creating products, but with fewer than Brooks’ five decades of experience really needs to read The Design of Design.

Pictures can convey messages much more powerfully than words. In a recent discussion about writing whitepapers, I suggested combining the idea-creation advice from Made To Stick with the image-creation advice from Back of The Napkin. Check out this article to see some concrete examples.

My friend Rich Mironov, chief marketing officer at Enthiosys, recently published The Art of Product Management, and was kind enough to send me a free copy. The essays he shares in the book make great conversation starters for product managers. Tyner Blain is giving away a free copy to someone who participates in the product management conversations. Read on to see how you can win.

We’ve all heard the saying, the customer is always right. For most product managers, however, the non-customer is the person you should be listening to. When you hear the phrase understand your market, the goal isn’t to understand those people who’ve already purchased your product. The goal is to understand the people who haven’t purchased your product yet.

Michael Port’s new book just came out. If you’re trying to redefine or improve how you focus professionally, it would be a good read. If you run your own company, or want to, it is a great read. Michael has good advice, good reasoning for his advice, and he writes well – a very easy to read style. Not dumbed down, not full of jargon. As someone who exactly matches his target audience, I highly recommend Beyond Booked Solid.

A first look at Outside-in Software Development, available tomorrow (or pre-order tonight on Amazon.com). At the time of this writing, the book is #29 on the Hot New Releases list – and you can get it for just over a third off the price if you pre-order now. Take a look at an overview of the book and our first impressions – then give the book a bump and let the wisdom of crowds take over.

Today we recorded an interview with James Taylor, co-author of Smart (Enough) Systems, How To Deliver Competitive Advantage by Automating Hidden Decisions. This book, written by James Taylor with Neil Raden comes out on Jun 29th (2007), and is available for pre-order from Amazon today. Our interview covers many of the topics in their book, with a focus on the ideas inside and the benefits you can get from applying them, in just under an hour.

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Who Should Read Tyner Blain?

These articles are written primarily for product managers. Everyone trying to create great products can find something of use to them here. Hopefully they are helping you with thinking, doing, and learning. Welcome aboard!